1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, generally, to a workstation of a goods invoicing system and, more specifically, to a peripheral device kit for the workstation of a goods invoicing system in which a display and input unit can be mounted either on a printer box or on a base box.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Depending on the application, a workstation of a goods invoicing system for shops is subject to various requirements in terms of its equipment and ease of use. In the following text, the term "workstation" covers both self-service stations used by a customer as well as equipment operated by assistants, such as cash registers, self-service weighing machines, assistant-operated weighing machines and weighing machines for packing and the like which may be free-standing or integrated in a so-called checkout point. For example, self-service weighing machines in fruit and vegetable sections and assistant-operated weighing machines are operated by a person who is standing, whereas a checkout assistant in a shop uses a cash register and an associated checkout weighing machine while sitting down. Up to now, specially designed workstations for the various applications have been used, or independent modules, whose dimensions or shapes frequently do not match one another, have been installed as desired without any spatial relation to one another. In so doing, ergonomic design principles are often followed relatively incompletely.
EP-A-0 380 082 discloses a workstation of a goods invoicing system which includes a casing with a weighing plate on its top side, a display device, an input device, a goods invoicing computer and a printer for cash register slips and/or price labels. The aforementioned peripheral devices are accommodated in a single casing and permanently are associated with one another.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,081 describes a data acquisition terminal includes a base casing and a keypad unit. The two can be combined or operated separately from one another. The base casing has a recess containing vertical guides and a plug connector, while corresponding guides and a mating plug are provided on the keypad unit. If the keypad unit is to be operated separately from the base casing, an additional cable must be used for their electrical connection as well as a cover for the recess which is then open.
EP-A-0 349 997 describes a cash register with a console-type casing incorporating a keypad, a display device and a printer. The display device is accommodated in a casing part which protrudes beyond the console surface in the shape of a lens and whose front side forms an obtuse angle with the keypad.
The desire for equipment for individual applications relates to manual input means and displays, recording devices for machine-readable information and physical properties of goods. Alternatively, there is a desire for equipment with various storage and identification media, such as drives for floppy disks or CD-ROM, connections for electronic, electro-optical or electromechanical bulk storage devices, for example complying with the PCMCIA standard, and readers for magnetic-strip or chip cards, which can be used to identify an operator or a service technician at the workstation. Each equipment variant would require the structure of an accommodating casing to be changed. Various additional structures make a workstation more expensive, however.
An object of the present invention, therefore, is to propose a peripheral device kit for the workstation of a goods invoicing system which can be used to adapt such a workstation to various application conditions.